C – Contribute

When it comes to membership in the church, it’s not about OUR benefits. It’s about HIS blood.

1. We are not consumers.

We don’t go to Church, we are the Church.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[d] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:14-26 (break up however) For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Organization vs Organism

1 Corinthians 12:27 – Now you are the body of Christ and individuallymembers (melos) of it.

2. We are not spectators.

1 Corinthians 12:18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

You have your reasons for being here.

But what if God has His reasons for bringing you here?

Ephesians 2:8-10  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Your reason for coming may have been what this church could give you. God’s purpose for keeping you here may include what He wants to give others through you.

1 Peter 4:10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace

STEWARDSHIP

3. We are not just volunteers.

Volunteering describes an activity.

Servanthood describes an identity.

What if my greatest ability is my availability?